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The link #17 ... August 2004

The Tax Law Team of the Bijuralism & Drafting Support Services Group of the Department of Justice of Canada is pleased to keep you posted on the most recent harmonization news.

Caselaw & bijuralism

The Tax Court of Canada rendered its decision in Fiducie Sylvie Vallée on April 30, 2004. The Court relied inter alia on section 8.2 of the Interpretation Act in analyzing a federal provision pertaining to trusts in light of civil law (relationship of complementarity).

In Hewlett Packard, on the other hand, the Federal Court of Appeal concluded that for purposes of the Income Tax Act, the concept of "acquisition" is dissociated from provincial private law. The Court stated that "(...) I am bound to point out that, even if the application of the Civil Code of Quebec gave rise to a result different from that obtained in the common law provinces, this Court has held that, for the sake of uniformity, the common law approach should prevail even in Quebec (Construction Bérou Inc. v. The Queen, 99 DTC 5869 per Létourneau J.A. at paragraph 14, per Desjardins J.A. at paragraphs 6 and 14)" (par. 62).

Research on Canadian Bijuralism

Ms Josée Vigeant produced her final report entitled "La prescription des dettes fiscales : Une décennie plus tard" (French only). She analyses the Markevichdecision as well as the limitation periods that apply to the collection of federal tax debts and the interruption and suspension of said periods. She also analyses the new tax law provisions pertaining to limitation periods.

Publication on Bijuralism

The latest column on the harmonization of federal tax legislation, written by Mr. Martin Lamoureux has been published in the A.P.F.F.’s Revue de planification fiscale et successorale (2004, vol. 25, No. 1) : “L'option dans un contexte bijuridique”.

Conference of Montreal (June 2004): André Ouellette organized and took part in a workshop for the Conference of Montreal. The theme of the workshop dealt with Commercial Contracts in the Americas. The participants addressed a number of issues arising out of Canada's trade relations with Latin American countries, including bijuralism. Mr. Ouellette delivered the results of his research on the changes that a civil law country in Latin America must consider in the context of trade liberalization with a common law country. The English version of the paper is available upon request.